Changing how the world eats could reduce premature deaths, save trillions of dollars and slow the impacts of climate change, according to a new landmark report released Thursday by the 2025 EAT-Lancet Commission, a coalition of experts in nutrition, climate, economics, health and agriculture from more than 35 countries.
In what they describe as “the most comprehensive global scientific evaluation of food systems to date,” the researchers said that if people worldwide adopted their “Planetary Health Diet” (PHD), up to 15 million premature deaths could be avoided annually. The commission also found that transforming how people eat could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture by more than half.
“Food systems are a major contributor to many of the crises we face today, and at the same time, the key to solving them,” Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted, commission co-chair and director for nutrition, health and food security at the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), said in a statement.
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“The evidence laid out in our report is clear: the world must act boldly and equitably to ensure sustainable improvements,” Thilsted added.
The commission’s PHD is a plant-based menu that includes three to five daily servings of whole grains, at least five daily servings of fruits and vegetables and daily servings of nuts and legumes.
The diet doesn’t call for the complete elimination of animal proteins for those who wish to continue eating them, but instead encourages people to consume red meat, poultry, fish, eggs and dairy in moderation. For example, the group recommends only one serving of red meat, two servings of fish and poultry and three to four eggs per week. They also call for strict limits on added sugars, saturated fats and salt.
“The Planetary Health Diet is not a one-size-fits-all approach,” said Walter C. Willett, the co-chair of the commission and a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “It allows for cultural diversity and individual preferences, providing flexibility within clear guidelines to achieve optimal health and sustainability outcomes worldwide,” he added.
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The new peer-reviewed report builds on the commission’s 2019 research, which at the time recommended reducing the consumption of foods like red meat and sugar by 50% and adopting a primarily plant-based diet.
“We’ve tried to make it maximally flexible, make the tent as big as possible, so this could include a vegan diet, various vegetarian diets, a pescatarian diet, as well as what we’ve shown as the omnivore diet as the primary example,” said Willett.
Willett said that when the commission compared their PHD diet with what people are typically eating in each country, they estimated that the world would see a 27% reduction in premature deaths if people adopted the PHD recommendations.
“We have a huge body of new literature showing very major health benefits,” Willett added.
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In addition to individual health benefits, the commission found that global adoption of the PHD could help prevent the worst outcomes of climate change.
“Food systems generate approximately 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and without change, could, on its own, push the warming on planet Earth beyond the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit, even if fossil fuels are phased out,” said Johan Rockström, a Commission co-chair and Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. “Transforming the food system, on the other hand, can cut global emissions by more than half.”
The report found that those emissions, as well as certain farming and food manufacturing processes, are the primary contributors to the breaching of five of the nine planetary boundaries. These boundaries, including climate change, biodiversity integrity and freshwater change, are thresholds that scientists say we need to avoid crossing for the planet to function correctly in the long term.
“How we produce and consume food affects the air we breathe, the water we drink, the soil that grows our crops and the health and dignity of workers and communities. Addressing these interconnected problems requires systemic and coordinated global action,” said Rockström.
The report’s authors also highlighted inequities in the food system, noting that the diets of the world’s wealthiest 30% are responsible for 70% of the environmental issues caused by food systems. They said that more than one-third of global food workers earn below a living wage and that millions of children are still providing labor for the agricultural industry.
Though less than 1% of the global population currently lives in conditions that are both socially just and environmentally sustainable, “there are many golden nuggets and bright spots,” said Mario Herrero, commission co-chair and a professor of sustainable food systems and global change at Cornell University.
Many low- and middle-income countries are making progress toward aligning their dietary patterns with the EAT-Lancet recommendations by 2050, the report noted.
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Taken as a whole, the researchers found that the world not only incurs a human cost for the status quo when it comes to how we eat, but a steep financial one. The report estimated that healthcare burdens and environmental issues made worse by our current food systems cost the world $15 trillion annually.
“Our recommendations are grounded in scientific evidence and real-world experience. Changes to global food systems are already underway, from school meal programs to regenerative agriculture and food waste reduction initiatives. Investing in and scaling up efforts to reshape global food systems now is the best way to build toward a sustainable, equitable future,” said Line Gordon, a commissioner and the director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University.
Cyrus Mowdawalla, MD, a resident physician in Internal Medicine from Montefiore Medical Center and contributing correspondent of the ABC News Medical Unit, contributed to this report.
